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Carnegie Mellon Heinz School Policy Management Information Technology
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90-711, Empirical Methods For Public Policy And Management

12 units


Prerequisites: None

Skills: Some previous exposure to Probability and Statistics

Required for: Required for First Year MS, MAM and MSD Students

Delivery Format: On-Campus

Sample Syllabus

Description:

Policy development and administrative decision making often require the collection and analysis of quantitative data. This course quickly reviews basic probability and statistics and then proceeds to introduce a variety of statistical methods in the context of public management and policy analysis.

By the end of the semester, you should be able to complete the following tasks:

  1. Identify populations and random samples. Explain the relationship between the sampling distribution and the population distribution.
  2. Use sample characteristics, such as the mean, median, standard deviation, etc., to estimate and summarize the distribution of the population.
  3. Execute and interpret hypothesis tests, confidence intervals, and other measures of estimation precision and model specification. You should be able to explain the purpose and results of such procedures in layperson's terms.
  4. Use correlation, conditional means, simple regression, and multiple regression to describe the statistical relationship among two or more random variables.
  5. Develop a modeling strategy that correctly distinguishes between predetermined variables and outcome variables.
  6. Identify violations of the classical regression model and explain the implied impact on the reliability of the estimates.
  7. Introduce yourself to an unfamiliar statistical software package on a personal computer, read a data set, and perform the necessary statistical operations.
  8. Read the statistical analysis of others and determine whether the methods and results support the conclusions.

The most important goal of the course is to help you obtain the knowledge and confidence to perform rapid "back of the envelope" analysis, and to help you obtain the references and other intellectual resources to undertake more rigorous analysis, and to help you obtain wisdom to know when each is appropriate.

Last modified on June 7, 2006